David Bruce has pledged that the opening of the club’s new store is ‘just the start’ of what he hopes will be a new era of fan engagement.
Sunderland’s new Chief Business Officer was in attendance with Chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus this morning as fans queued around the block for the opening of the new store in Black Cats House. The launch of the new home kit, the first of a new five-year partnership with hummel, has been well received by fans. The retail overhaul is being led by Fanatics, one of the leading sports retail companies.
Fans queuing were handed free pink slices after around 50 season-card holders were invited to a special launch event on Thursday night. Bruce hopes that the changes happening this summer, which include a significant investment into facilities at the Stadium of Light, mark a fresh start for the club after a difficult 2023/24 campaign.
“We recognise where the fans were,” Bruce said.
“It wasn’t ideal. But we always trusted the process to get the right head coach in. We believe we’ve got the right head coach in. When he was announced and people started to understand what he’s about and what he’ll bring to the football club, I think the fans have really warmed to that appointment. Fast forward through the weekend, we’ve fired a drone over the stadium and shown the grass growing and some of the safe standing areas. We teased the kit on Sunday. It felt like a different place in 48 hours. Then the fixtures get released and you can almost start to feel the season. With the head coach, new partnerships like hummel and Fanatics, what we’re doing in the stadium, it’s going to feel like a different place. There’s a lot of energy around the club and long may that continue.
“We listen to the fans and understand where the issues have been,” he added.
“We want to deliver against that. We have people here who live and breathe the football club and have a really good read of what this football club can become. Put those good people with good instincts and understanding, that’s what we’ve done with hummel and Fanatics and delivered a superior product. It’s been really nice to see how the fans have reacted and I can’t wait for them to come into the space. It’s just the start of all the amazing things we’re going to be doing together.”
Another of Bruce’s key priorities has been to improve the club’s ticketing and customer service, with work ongoing on new contact points in the Stadium itself. The club are also working on a special platform which will allow fans to make queries and get rapid answers online.
“We wanted to get retail right,” Bruce said.
“That’s the experience of shopping, having the availability of product. There’s a great range for females, for kids, all of the gear for kids is a direct take-down of the adults, we have a bunch of other custom-spec stuff. The level of service, availability, we can buy earlier, products more readily available at peak times, that’s really key as well.
“We wanted to sort the product story out, which we’ve done with hummel. Soon to come on the heels of this is what we’re doing with our ticketing business and moving that operation to the stadium, a custom built space for ticketing at the North West corner, and some of the tech and platforms we’re putting in place around ticketing as well that will enable us to deal with customer fan issues and queries in real time. There will be more points of contact for customers to ask questions around ticketing, so they’re not necessarily having to come to the stadium to get an answer.”
Work has already begun on the planning for next season’s kits, with the away and third kits for the 2024/25 campaign set to be released over the course of this summer. There’ll also be a number of new ranges released over the course of the year, and Bruce believes the club’s new partners will transform both the product and service on offer to fans. The chief business officer said the potential for the club was ‘limitless’ and that he was determined to realise that promise.
“I’m completely delighted with the end product,” he said.
“What I think was most pleasing was the time frame we worked with, everything we’ve done, from the start of the conversation with hummel and Fanatics to now is like 11 months. That’s unheard of in retail time. “To be able to get a store like this and product in the market like we have, at the level of customisation and bespokeness that we do have at the football club, it’s testament to everyone who’s touched this and everyone who’s believed in the vision.
“I think we hooked hummel and Fanatics very quickly around what this football club is and could become with the right type of partners by our side. As we’ve said before, this club is a rocket ship ready to take off and if we have the right partners alongside us, who are able to deliver in a few key areas, like retail and product and some other fan related stuff that we’ll talk about later, the opportunity is just limitless.”
